The tense, shadowy world of the German submarine during the war is recreated here by a man who himself fought in the Battle of the Atlantic. Of the 41,000 submariners, aged 18 to thirty, who served on German submarines, 26,000 never returned. LOTHAUR-GÜNTER BUCHEIM was one of those who returned, and in this book, written almost thirty years later, he tells his extraordinary story. He vividly describes the cramped, enclosed world at the bottom of the sea - weeks of boredom, frustration and fruitless patrolling, punctuated by hours of terrifying attacks; a feeling of helplessness as a fixed target for any predatory enemy destroyer; the absolute discomfort of the crowded, stinking living quarters in the bowels of the ship. Here is a war from “the other side”—and the men who fought it were no less courageous, no less resilient, and no less humane.